Saturday afternoon had the Fish taking on the Mudcats for the second time this season. One of the Prior Lake players appeared to have a bulldog puppy in the dugout; no sign of a catfish on or near the Union Hill bench on Thursday. You do the math.

 

It was a classic DRS matchup on the hill: Ahern vs. Pumper.

 

Prior Lake came out swinging, plating one in the first after Houston singled and eventually came around to score on a Jake Lehrer single through the hole on the left side. Honest to God, Jake Lehrer had three singles on the day, all hard hit balls, and all hit to the exact same spot. Dude could teach a master class on pounding line drives between the shortstop and thirdbasemen. 

 

But, as the Fish are wont to do, we answered back right away in our half of the inning. A. Henkemeyer hit an absolute moon shot that scored two and might have landed in Fredrickson Field (in New Market East). We would push across two more thanks to RBI singles from Ben "Sweet Sauce" Hines and Scotty "Spokes" Lyden.

 

The Fudcats proceeded to score one in the 3rd and two in the 4th, tying the score at 4 after four. Then we decided to score a lot more runs.

 

Damage in the 5th came from the stick of The Big Rooster, Nick Rost, who led the attack with three knocks on the day. Big Tone "Tito" Vocca added an RBI double in the 6th, and Herber a two-RBI double in the 7th.

 

Ahern threw six decent innings. Worry not, he's just easing himself back into the swing of things after a long season of unleashing grit in the greater St. Cloud area. Vocca came in for the last three to earn his first save in a Muskies uniform. This guy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINAL

Prior Lake - 4

Muskies - 12

 

. . . 

 

Having sat out last season, I wasn't privy to the upgrades made to Webster's ballpark, and I must confess to being pleasantly surprised at what I saw: new scoreboard in left field, nice little green screen covering the outfield fence, and a bunch of sponsor banners. It felt totally different, I imagine the fan experience is that much better, too. Kudos to the Webster Sox braintrust.

 

The ballgame: The Nate Rost took the hill for the Fish, something we were all excited to see; He threw four strong innings against a pesky Sox lineup, scattering seven hits and striking out seven hitters while yielding only a single run.

 

We got on the board first. Firpo had an RBI single in the opening frame, and a little double steal scored another.

 

Webster kept the game close all afternoon, scoring one in the 3rd on a Brooks Prochaska single to bring the tally to 3-1 after three. We opened things up a bit in the 6th thanks to a two-RBI double from Hines.

 

From there, D. Bergstrom and T. Vocca combined to throw the final five frames, allowing a single run on two hits. DB vultured the win, and Vocca picked up his second save in as many days.

 

A few too many baserunning snafus for my liking, but all around we played a good game. Todd Bergstrom, New Market Baseball, continued to take pages from the Rocco Baldelli book of managing, mixing his starting lineups, resting veterans, giving everyone a chance to play. This is a balanced team from top to bottom, fun to watch, fun to be a part of.

 

We travel to Veseli on Wednesday evening for an 8:00 PM tilt. See you there! El Webby out.